Sanding tools are used widely and available in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit their particular application or desired use. In general, it may be said that there are three main configurations utilised to locate and hold an abrasive material such as sandpaper in position against a supporting tool body (which may be a power tool or hand tool). These three types can be classified according to the following descriptions:                1. screw down clips or clamps to allow an abrasive material, such as sandpaper to be wrapped around the ends of the tool and clamped onto the tool by such screw-down clips or clamps; or        2. hook and loop systems (such as VELCRO®) with either hooks or loops provided on a base of the tool body and loops or hooks provided on the back surface of the sandpaper; or        3. various foam pads glued to a base of the body of the tool (i.e. the abrasive support portion of the tool) where the exposed or ‘skin’ side of the foam has applied thereto abrasives by, for example, pressure sensitive adhesive to allow it to stick to the foam. Foam pads may be made, for example, from Ethyl Vinyl Acetate (EVA) and may be incorporated in sanding tools having screw down clips of clamps or hook and loop fastening systems.        Foam pads provide a cushion between the tool and the surface to be sanded.        
Problems exist with current sanding tool design, in particular as the types of tool configurations requiring screw-down clips or clamps for holding the abrasive material in place do not tend to facilitate simple abrasive material attachment. In addition, the present abrasive material holder systems generally make fitting of abrasive material a slow and fiddly process, and screw-down clamp type systems can result in wastage of abrasive material when attempting to ensure correct fitting of the material.
The hook and loop system of holding the abrasive material to a sanding tool can be expensive, and the tool system utilising EVA foam can be problematic due to foam materials being porous by nature and not therefore conducive to adhering abrasive material such as sandpaper thereto, it is known that since foams, such as EVA, are produced from moulds and subsequently cut into slabs, a shiny, or smoother skin surface occurs against the mould surface. This skin material, which is in general the off-cut from batch EVA production processes is conducive to adhering abrasive material such as sand paper thereto. The availability of this EVA skin material is however not currently sufficient to allow production of sanding tools on an industrial scale.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an abrasive tool or a system for holding an abrasive medium to a hand tool which will go at least some way towards overcoming the above disadvantages or which will at least provide the industry and/or public with a useful choice.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a system which may be utilised with sanding tools to provide a surface capable of attaching and providing a good adhesive surface for the adhesive backed abrasive material sheet whilst also being able to provide a more economic and/or less awkward system for connecting together a sanding tool body and an abrasive material sheet.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is acknowledged that the term ‘comprise’ may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term ‘comprise’ shall have an inclusive meaning—i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term ‘comprised’ or ‘comprising’ is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.